Comments on: Lift the Offshore Drilling Ban

National Review: It Would Signal That The U.S. Is Serious About Increasing Domestic Production

[sparks224]

The premis of this story is false.

There are plenty of oil fields in the continental U.S. that are not being utilized right now. Of course you will never about that from the ExxonMobile sponsored news.

[ubrew12]

IOWEIGN said: "CEO pay is at record highs..." Nice to see our priorities are in the right place...

To take just wave power as an example, certain states have had enough of oil-costs, and are beginning (finally) to order wave-power installations. So, which companies are about to reap massive growth from a sudden worldwide interest in wave power? Why, the Aussies, Scotts, and Scandinavians, of course. Only there did the government offer tax-breaks and other aid to these struggling companies while they were birthing their technologies.

There is one U.S. company with an offering to tap into this huge new market, just ONE. Where did they get their research funds during the hard years? The military. Welcome to America!!!

[ioweign]

Why can''''t that happen for wind, wave, ocean thermal, geothermal, solar, and other mechanisms? Because powerful interests are against it, that''''s why.

Posted by ubrew12 at 09:31 PM : Jun 19, 2008

CEO pay is at record highs...

[ubrew12]

The powers that be promote oil and nuclear because they can control the fuel for these energy options. Think oil speculation is bad? Try speculation in uranium. We don''t promote renewable energy options because they are renewable, and so no one can monopolize the supply of the fuel.

Once we got it right. In the 1930s-50s, American''s built dams that still generate 20% of our electricity today, despite the fact that the dams paid for themselves 40 years ago. Thus, the energy they pump into the American economy is FREE. That would never happen under todays corporate-controlled energy market. Why can''t that happen for wind, wave, ocean thermal, geothermal, solar, and other mechanisms? Because powerful interests are against it, that''s why.

[atheismwins]

Good article. Worldwide supply is 85 million barrels daily. Worldwide demand is 87 million. We are in a bidding war for oil.

Did anyone else hear the Dems'' back breaking? They are like the man who hit his wife because his sports team lost.

[tejasdemo]

The only thing it will signal is more getting screwed at the pump. Period.

[texlandrover]

Everyone WAKE UP!!! We need a multi-prong approach. We need to build more Solar & Wind systems. Build Nuclear, YES Nuclear power. I know its hard for some to grasp but sometimes the wind does Not blow and it gets dark outside. And Finally, we need to fully exploit the fossil fuel resources located in North America. Enough sending US dollars to the mid East, lets spend that money in the USA!!! That is the solution, and it only took me 5 minutes to come up with it.

[texlandrover]

Everyone WAKE UP!!! We need a multi-prong approach. We need to build more Solar & Wind systems. Build Nuclear, YES Nuclear power. I know its hard for some to grasp but sometimes the wind does Not blow and it gets dark outside. And Finally, we need to fully exploit the fossil fuel resources located in North America. Enough sending US dollars to the mid East, lets spend that money in the USA!!! That is the solution, and it only took me 5 minutes to come up with it.

Drilling more wells is classic head-in-the-sand solution! It ignores two of the biggest gorillas in the woods.
1. We WILL run out of oil someday. Drilling more wells just hastens the arrival of that day. We need to be getting ready for it, instead of going precisely in the wrong direction.
2. There is no getting around the effect fossil fuel burning has on this ocean of air we live in. Cars are the biggest sources of pollution.
The best and quickest way to lower gas prices is to put a leash on those predatory capitalist speculators that the republicans unleashed a few years ago. These clowns are the ONLY beneficiaries of more oil well drilling!

[it_oldtimer]

Pfffftt...our remaining "native" oil reserves are already pitifully inadequate, and still years away from production.

Perhaps it would be better to just leave them untapped for now, and consider that oil a part of the "strategic reserve" - to be used only when all the other sources dry up.